Monthly Archives: June 2011

Well folks, this is the 2nd of 3 suggestions for my Nail Art Challenge Contest. Stephanie suggested that I do a manicure for this weekend’s Essence Music Festival in New Orleans. As soon as she said New Orleans, I immediately thought of Mardi Gras colors…yellow, green, and purple. I thought of Bourbon St., rich with vibrant colors and sounds…alive with history and culture.

With so much inspiration to pull from, it took me quite a while to figure out what I wanted to do. And I really wanted to incorporate an existing nail trend into this manicure. I actually tried another design Tuesday night, wore it on Wednesday but I really didn’t like it. Last night, I decided upon the “moon manicure” which is also known as the “reverse-French manicure”. In a moon manicure, the moon—that lighter crescent at the base of each nail—is either left unpainted or it is painted a contrasting color to the rest of the nail. Check out this Google Image Search for examples. The moon manicure has been around for a few years though, and I didn’t really have a desire to do it…until now. I needed a way to paint my nails 3 colors without using a striping technique (which I think I do too much of as it is…). So for this manicure, I painted on a base color: 2 coats of Wet n Wild Fast Dry The Wonder Yellow. Next I carefully created a crescent shape at the base of each nail with Wet n Wild Fast Dry Sage In The City. Then, I used Wet n Wild Fast Dry Buffy the Violet Slayer to paint the majority of my nail, being careful to create a 2nd crescent of green. I wanted it to appear like the yellow was transitioning into green which then transitions into purple. Last I painted a pair of eighth notes on my ring finger using The Wonder Yellow.

There you have it…my Essence Music Festival Double Moon Manicure. I hope Stephanie likes it!!

Today I saw a Facebook status update from Nails Magazine alerting everyone of a Color Club nail art contest for the 4th of July. I immediately went to the Color Club page and entered Stars and Stripes Forever. That be awesome if I won…*stares off dreamily*…

Oh, the actual point of this post! In the same Nails Magazine update they reminded everyone to submit their art for their 365 Days of Nail Art Blog. A few weeks ago I submitted several of my pictures to the editor for consideration. I figured now was as good as a time as any to check back to see if anything made the cut…and lo and behold, on June 15th’s post I found my Snakeskin Manicure picture! I’m Day 166! Click here to see it! I’m honored that they chose my art to feature on their blog…especially considering the other entries. I mean there are some folks that have downright fantasy-level nail art! Anyways, check out my art on there and scroll through the other entries if you’re looking for inspiration or just to be wowed.

Here are 2 looks from a Versace Mens show in Milan on 6/20/2011 (from style.mtv.com)

I saw the pattern in the look on the right and literally exclaimed “WHOA!!”. I don’t know many men who would actually wear those pants…maybe the shirt but that’s a stretch. Anyways, I thought it was great inspiration for my weekend manicure. For this look, I used China Glaze Happy Go Lucky as the base color and my handy dandy Art Deco Nail Art Stripers in White and Black. Welp, this post is short and sweet. I feel like those loud, fancy, fabulous pants say it all. Happy Friday, good people. 😀

Let me start this post by saying, WHAT THE HECK? WHY DO ALL THE TUTORIAL VIDEOS FOR WATER MARBLING LOOK SO EASY WHEN THIS IS THE HARDEST, MESSIEST NAIL ART PROJECT I’VE EVER DONE! AAAAHHHH! Ok, now that’s out of the way, I can say the trials and tribulations were totally worth it. And I went through MANY trials and tribulations…

First, I would recommend going on YouTube and watching videos on water marbling first before trying it for yourself but I’ll tell you about how I was able to do this successfully.

Now a list of the mistakes I learned the hard way:

1. What those YouTubers don’t tell you is that not every nail polish works well for water marbling. The ones with a gel base were way too thin once they spread out on the water and it made for a very light marbling effect, not bold like I’d imagined. And some polish formulas (I’m looking at you bright neon China Glaze polishes!) had polish drops so dense they bypassed the surface of the water and sank right to the bottom of the cup. *cue The Price Is Right Losing Horn sound* You may have to do several tests on the surface of your water before you find out which polishes in your collection will work for the water marbling method.

2. Create an area for your art should things get messy. All the YouTubers have done this (I noticed in retrospect) but no one explicitly says, “hey this is the messiest thing you’ve done since making paper maché masks in kindergarten!”

3. Because you’re constantly dipping the nail polish brush into the bottle to get drops, you might be tempted to not tighten the cap after every drop. I can see how you might do that. Just remember to tighten the cap when you’re all done. I did not. I picked up a bottle of Orly Blue Collar by the cap, which was not tightened, and it held for a split second then fell…onto me, my couch, a side table, and the wall…coming to rest on its side on my carpeted floor. Yep. After a short expletive-filled outburst, I cleaned up the mess with nail polish remover and created a semi-permanent nail art station on my dining room table.

4. If you’re going to do this on your own fingers, protect your finger skin with Scotch tape. There are videos on YouTube of folks doing this, but I thought “whatever, I’ll just wipe off the excess with nail polish remover”. WRONG! Nail polish can stain! After I stained my right middle finger light blue, I decided to do this entire project on fake nails. Why? A) I knew that once I got this first attempt right, I would not want to see all my hard work end up on a cotton ball soaked in nail polish remover in a few days and B) I really didn’t feel like encasing my fingers in Scotch tape for this first look.

5. Use room temperature water. I don’t know the chemical properties of polish but it only spreads out into that polish puddle if the the polish and water are the same temp…room temp.

With that said, who loves Superman Ice Cream??! I do! And I wanted to dedicate a nail post to it. So here it is…

For some reason, none of my yellow polishes were working well for this method, so my first step was 2 coats of China Glaze Happy Go Lucky (bright yellow) on the fake nails.

Once I chose and tested the colors I wanted to marble on the nails, I took a plastic cup of room temperature water and allowed 1 drop of polish to hit the surface…it automatically spread out. I kept dropping drops of the other colors in the center of my first nail polish puddle, until it looked like this…

note the successfully dipped pre-made nail on the right…

Then I took a toothpick and lightly disturbed the surface of my polish puddle making a pattern of swirls.

Note the closeup of the toothpick in the foreground of the pic…

Then I dipped my nail into the puddle, straight down into the water and used the toothpick to collect the remaining polish off of the surface of the water before bringing my nail out. This prevents your nail from catching more unintended polish on the way out.

Then I let the nails dry on the toothpicks, added a couple coats of top coat and voila! Superman Ice Cream-themed nails! I finished this project laaaaaaaate last night so I didn’t have enough energy to apply them. But I wanted to get this post up for all to see. I’ll post an update tonight or tomorrow of what they look like on my nails in the sun!

Hello all! As I’ve become more interested in nail polish and art in the past year, I’ve also become very aware of other women’s nails. The choice of colors and designs are limitless and it is fascinating to see how we show our individuality using our nails. It’s the main reason why I started this blog…to show my creativity and individuality using these tiny canvases called finger (and sometimes toe) nails. Last week, I went to the movies and I spotted an incredibly cool nail design on the young lady at the ticket counter. I was so impressed that I struck up a conversation with her and asked if I could take a picture of her nails and she said yes! So this is my first ‘Nails In The Wild’ picture and post…

Much like myNeon + Shatter + Matte post, this young lady’s nail artist combined several nail trends in one design—multi-colored nails, mixed media in the form of tiny rhinestones, some kind of shatter/crackle polish, and more typical abstract nail art—all within a shades-of-blue color scheme. I was impressed by this artist’s design and since imitation is the highest form of flattery I really wanted to mimic this design but with a different color scheme. It’s summertime, I chose coral as my base color. 😀

The main color I used was Orly Ole. I used Art Deco Nail Art Stripers in black, white, and silver glitter on my ring finger and China Glaze Peachy Keen for the dots. I affixed rhinestones using OPI Top Coat on my index finger. On my middle finger I used one coat of OPI Silver Shatter on top of Orly Ole. Let me tell you, this was an exercise in patience as well as good practice as this 1 design required me to use nearly all of my current nail art expertise…

That said, I’m ready for more fun nail art challenges! I feel it’s time to wrap up my 1st Nail Art Contest/Challenge so my deadline for suggestions is now Saturday June 18th! I’ve only gotten 1 response so speak up before it’s too late and you may get a prize pack!

Look at that shine!!

P.S. I don’t normally take sunlit pictures, primarily because I started this blog in April and it was cloudy/rainy for like 6 weeks straight. But as long as it’s sunny, I will from now on because only sunlight can truly capture the brilliance of these nail polish colors.

Hello all! Today I went to the Detroit Tigers vs Seattle Mariners game at Comerica Park and to help root-root-root for the home team, I did this Detroit Tigers-baseball-theme manicure. On my thumb, index and middle fingers I painted 2 coats of OPI A Good Mandarin Is Hard To Find then painted the black tiger stripes with the Art Deco Nail Art Striper in black. On the ring finger, I painted 2 coats of OPI Dating A Royal then painted the classic Old English ‘D’ (found on Detroit Tigers’ uniforms, hats, etc) using the Art Deco Nail Art Striper in white. On my pinky, I painted 2 coats of China Glaze White on White then drew the baseball stitching with the Art Deco Nail Art Striper in red glitter. Sadly my beloved Tigers lost :-(, but I enjoyed the game! I hope you enjoyed your Sunday too. 😀

I went to my first Mani Party last weekend with a few fellow nail fans and it was fantastic! Desiree Mattox, chemist and expert in cosmetic science (envielabs.com), supplied us with a wonderful hand soak, scrub, and moisturizer. She even does custom cosmetics for your specific skin type and custom fragrances using all natural ingredients! Check out the link above!

After the hand and nail pampering, the polishing began! Check out all the fun designs below!

Contrast color ring finger with a J in rhinestones

Summer mani with polka-dotted ring fingers

French manicure with an alternative color scheme and Crackle on the thumbs

I love short nails but lately I’ve had a desire for long nails to try out some different celebrity-inspired nail lengths, shapes, and designs–particularly the stiletto nail shape. The stiletto nail shape has been a nail trend lately for stars like Lady Gaga, Fergie, Rihanna and Beyonce.

Some nail enthusiasts would say “true” stiletto nails are even more pointy than the above examples. Just google “stiletto nails” and the image results are borderline frightening. It’s hard for me to find anything pointier than the above examples practical for real life considering you’ll have to go to the bathroom, get out wedgies and the like.

Last Friday, I was going to a formal but fun event and I wanted this less-extreme stiletto nail shape for the night. But my natural nails aren’t long and I really didn’t want to get acrylic or gel nail enhancements. After some research and experimenting, I found full nail/nail tip enhancements at Sally Beauty. First I matched up tips that fit the size of my natural nail bed, then I filed them into the less-extreme stiletto nail tip shape and pre-painted them.

I attached them to toothpicks to make them a bit easier to work with while I was painting them. For this look, I used China Glaze Liquid Leather, Up All Night, and Frostbite and Orly Luxe. The day of the event, I applied 2 coats of Top Coat to my natural nails, removed the nails from the toothpicks, put about 2 drops of nail glue on the back of each artificial nail and applied it to my natural nail by pressing down for a few seconds then releasing the pressure. I used 2 coats of top coat first in an effort to protect my natural nails. More about that later…

The end result? Funky, sexy stiletto nails for a night out on the town!

To make them even more funky, and inspired by Zoe Pocock’s Louboutin nails concept, prior to apply them I painted the underside of the nails with Orly Luxe.

So I went to my event, got lots of compliments and actually ended up wearing them until Sunday just because they were so fun! But alas, I had a hard time typing with them so I removed them. As it turned out, the 2 top coats I applied protected my natural nails! I had to do a bit of scraping with my thumb nails and wiping with acetone to get some of the nail glue off completely, but in the end, my natural nails were unaffected.

I will definitely be using this method again if I want temporary funky nails. Hope you enjoyed this post as much as I enjoyed a weekend of funky nails. 😀

My Lucky Magazine daily email today featured a new nail polish brand called Julep. Now the deal is for a “Must-have Summer Polish Set” that includes 4 fun colors for the summer and cuticle oil for $27.93 (regular price $64.95). Whenever a new polish brand enters an already crowded nail product market, I take notice because it must have taken quite a bit of work to get to the level of being featured by Lucky Magazine.You’ll have to go here, pick the Julep Summer Must Have Set and enter ‘luckydaily3’ at checkout to get the Lucky Magazine Deal. This deal is only good until June 2nd at 10:59 a.m. (it started today at 11:00 a.m.)

Julep is a nail parlor and product company that originated in Seattle, WA with the goal of providing a healthy, relaxing, empowering environment for women in groups to be able to sit down and enjoy each others’ company while being pampered. ‘Nail parlor, eh?’, I thought. Sounds fancy! 😀 I went to their website and checked out the About Julep page and was intrigued to find that PBS has profiled the company on their show “Trendspotting”. It was a VERY interesting video! Their 4 nail parlors are in Washingston so I won’t be able to take part in the full experience anytime soon but $27.93 for 4 polishes and cuticle oil for a brand with the $14/bottle price point is a deal.

I like their vision and what the company stands for in making fashion-forward, environmentally-friendly, healthy products. Let me know if any of you guys take a chance on Julep and pick up this deal today.

It’s wedding season! I know that classic light pink and white French manicures will be popular among brides on their wedding day, but how about extending the lace or tulle of a wedding dress to nails? First, I cut pieces of white lace to the size of each nail. Then I applied my base coat and three coats of Orly Lift The Veil (which was pretty much made for wedding day nails). Last, I applied OPI Top Coat to one nail then immediately applied the pre-cut lace piece to the corresponding nail and repeated that for each nail. Unfortunately, I couldn’t apply another layer of top coat to seal the manicure because it made the lace translucent instead of stark white, so that one coat of OPI Top Coat will have to do. Not sure if any of the folks who see my blog are brides-to-be, but I’d love to hear if you tried it out. 😀